Brian Cabell, CNN Correspondent
August 8, 1995
Oxford, Miss.
Welcome to the introductory course on Elvis Presley, no pencils or notebooks needed. The guest lecturers are the so-called Black Elvis, the Hawaiian Elvis, and the Mexican Elvis.
There is fun at this first-ever Elvis conference at the University of Mississippi, but it is meant to be a serious examination of a unique and charismatic entertainer and his roots.
Elvis' roots, according to many who knew him, were in church music, both black and white.
"In his beginning, he told us he had always enjoyed singing `Precious Lord Take My Hand.' ... That's one of his favorite songs," said blues singer Gatemouth Moore.
The six-day conference, while focusing on Elvis' music, takes an anthropological look at the performer, his family, his region and his times. Included in the Elvis Presley curriculum are courses on the international Elvis, Elvis and the pop fringe, and Elvis and black rhythm.
His home in Tupelo was tiny, but his rise to superstardom, as a modest young man, was meteoric.
According to some academics, Elvis, especially early in his career, represented the best of America.
Vernon Chadwick, Elvis conference organizer, said Elvis represents "a spirit of hope ... that you can make something of rocky origins, of freedom, of self-expression, or just to be whoever you want to be."
But is an entertainer, even Elvis Presley, worthy of six days of serious study?
"Everybody knows the University of Mississippi for its Southern studies: William Faulkner, John Grisham and the various authors that have come through. And Elvis is certainly an author in his own way," said Chris Caves, an Elvis impersonator.
That's the rationale behind this unconventional conference that is seeking to move Elvis from the pages of the tabloids to the halls of academia. It also provides Elvis fans and scholars yet another look at the music that helped shape an American icon.
Copyright © 1995 Cable News Network, Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.